He left
here in 1811, and returned in 1857. The forty-six intervening years had
borne to the grave most of the persons with whom he had formed
acquaintance. Among those he recognized were several who were in
business, or clerks, on State Street in 1811,--Messrs. John Porter,
Moses Kimball, Prescott Spaulding, and a few others. Mr. Spaulding was
fourteen years older than Mr. Peabody, and in business when the latter
was a clerk with his uncle, Colonel John Peabody. Mr. Peabody was here
in 1857, on the day of the Agricultural Fair, and was walking in the
procession with the late Mayor Davenport, when he saw Mr. Spaulding on
the sidewalk, and at once left the procession to greet him.
"Mr. Spaulding had rendered him the greatest of services. When Mr.
Peabody left Newburyport, he was under age, and not worth a dollar. Mr.
Spaulding gave him letters of credit in Boston, through which he
obtained two thousand dollars' worth of merchandise of Mr. James Reed,
who was so favorably impressed with his appearance, that he subsequently
gave him credit for a larger amount. This was his start in life, as he
afterward acknowledged; for at a public entertainment in Boston, when
his credit was good for any amount, and in any part of the world, Mr.
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